Rezoning approved

An effort to construct a new cell phone tower in Jay County has cleared its first hurdle.

Jay County Plan Commission on Thursday approved a request from Tillman Infrastructure to rezone three acres of land in Knox Township as commercial from the current agricultural residential.

The request will now move to Jay County Commissioners for final approval.

Strategis site acquisition specialist Will Faber, whose company works with Tillman, and Jim Tackett of AT&T explained that plans call for construction of a communications tower on the property on the south side of Division Road between Indiana 1 and county road 1000 West. By county ordinance, land must be zoned commercial or industrial to allow such development.

AT&T plans to lease space on the tower at a cost savings from its current lease agreement with Tillman competitor SBA.

“These are things that are consistent with our long-term vision,” said Tackett of the infrastructure investment. “The wireless business in our industry is growing as we speak.

“The economics plays into our business. Towers are very significant infrastructure. And the more that we have the better coverage we can offer. … It’s really what we think is the best for our customers.”

SBA, which owns a cell tower about 0.6 miles away from the proposed new tower and currently leases space to AT&T, opposed the request.

Josh Quandt of Fort Wayne law firm Beckman Lawson, which is representing SBA, argued the new Tillman tower is unnecessary given the existence of the  current SBA tower. He also contended the request did not meet the criteria for a zoning change.

“It doesn’t really better serve in terms of cellular service,” he said. “It just kind of is a way to decrease lease costs for major cell carriers.

“We acknowledge that there’s a competitive element to this opposition,” he added later. 

“However, there are legitimate planning and zoning reasons …”

Travis Richards, executive director of Jay County Development Corporation, spoke in favor of the planned tower.

“That’s going to drive some tax dollars into the county, which I think is important,” he said, noting the assessed value of the tower would be far great than that of farmland.

Tackett added that East Central Indiana Regional Partnership, of which Jay County is a member, also supported the request.

John Hemmelgarn of Jay/Portland Building and Planning reported the area of the proposed tower is open ground at a safe distance from surrounding homes.

Plan commission members asked several questions, including about how the site was chosen, how the new tower would benefit Jay County residents and whether it would have any negative impact.

The site was chosen to optimize coverage and provide better service, Faber and Tackett said.

As for the negatives, Quandt said the tower is not needed and warned against proliferation of towers on the local landscape. Plan commission members Ted Champ, Brad Daniels, Matt Minnich, Tom Laux and Steve Ford voted unanimously in favor of approving the rezoning request with Michelle Penrod and Chad Aker absent. By rule, president Scott Hilfiker only votes in case of a tie.

If commissioners approve give the rezoning request final approval, Tillman would then need to seek a special use exception for the land and a variance for the 270-foot tower from the county’s board of zoning appeals.

Also Thursday, plan commissioner re-elected Hilfiker as president, Ford as vice president and Minnich as secretary. They also voted to retain Pati McLaughlin as recording secretary and Bill Hinkle as legal counsel.

Laux was named as the group’s non-voting representative on Portland Plan Commission.